


And for Once It Might Be Grand

by Highsmith (quimtessence)



Category: The Old Guard (Movie 2020)
Genre: Blood and Gore, Canon Queer Character of Color, Canon Queer Relationship, Character Study, Developing Relationship, Enemies to Friends to Lovers, Eventual Romance, Immortal Husbands Joe | Yusuf Al-Kaysani/Nicky | Nicolò di Genova, M/M, Malta, Pining, Pre-Canon, Pre-Relationship, Slow Burn, The Author Striving for Historical Accuracy and Hoping for the Best, What Happened in Malta (The Old Guard)
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-08-09
Updated: 2020-08-09
Packaged: 2021-03-05 21:28:39
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 737
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25792114
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/quimtessence/pseuds/Highsmith
Summary: In short, Yusuf loses himself a little.
Relationships: Joe | Yusuf Al-Kaysani & Nicky | Nicolo di Genova, Joe | Yusuf Al-Kaysani/Nicky | Nicolò di Genova
Comments: 10
Kudos: 95





	And for Once It Might Be Grand

**Author's Note:**

> Title from _Beauty and the Beast_. IDK, these two idiots...

Undoubtedly Yusuf is not a particularly smart man, and Nicolò shares in that stupidity but completely judging by the evidence at hand, but they keep evading punishment by means of not dying yet and, as such, there's little incentive to improve on their faults.

It's been over a year of one killing the other every few days. They stopped trying, as in Nicolò finally gave up, a little over a month ago, while Yusuf had been anticipating his attacks but doing little to evade them, knowingly allowing Nicolò to come to this inevitable end all on his own, for how much longer could he have persevered in the face of what Yusuf now knows with certainty is immortality. They are currently walking towards something, both literally and metaphorically, but Yusuf hasn't the faintest what that might be. Both gravitate towards ports and the water, but that's neither here nor there.

While in al-Lādhiqīyah, they unintentionally raid a Genoese ship, becoming no more than disgraceful pirates by the end of it. Nicolò seems surprised by the high heat of September, but less so by butchering the better part of a ship's crew made up of his own countrymen. Granted, the ship might come from his homeland, his namesake, but Genova has surely become a dream of a place rather than something tangible. Yusuf is tangible. Nicolò is, too; he's had his hands on him numerous times drawing blood and sawing at bone, therefore he must be more than an apparition meant to needlessly torture him.

They move on with their bounty, and all Nicolò comments is that at least it wasn't a monastery.

*

Despite managing to communicate verbally through a combination of Greek and bits of Arabic and Latin, they fall into the habit of gesticulating at each other with a greater measure of success than Yusuf could have anticipated. They speak with their eyes most effectively and thus most often, which means he has occasion after occasion to stare into them, measure by sight the length of Nicolò's eyelashes, to count the specks of gold in his eyes over and over again, and to come to a solid conclusion as to whether the shades of green outnumber the shades of blue. (They do not.)

In short, Yusuf loses himself a little.

*

Far too readily Nicolò allows their closeness, which has the effect that Yusuf entirely misinterprets what are surely meant to be gestures of friendship, before finding his bearings and stomping on any feeble sentimentality and blatant insanity at believing for even a second that it means anything other than what it is: Nicolò kindly stretching his hand out for him to take in return for Yusuf once halting his killing blow to do the same, never mind Nicolò plunged his longsword into his abdomen for his trouble.

*

It turns out that Nicolò is violently seasick for five days straight.

Mercifully, he doesn't die. The morbidity of being stuck at sea with a corpse on the brink of resurrection is too much for even Yusuf to bear, he who has died by this point too many times to count. Their little boat spares him none of the frankly disgusting details of Nicolò's predicament, but Yusuf nonetheless rubs his back conscientiously and brings him water and provisions when he asks for them.

Luckily, they only spend another three days on the water, a tailwind pushing them forward to land sooner than expected. They packed scarcely enough for such a voyage, and Yusuf is quietly thankful they didn't perish from thirst in the meantime, mainly because it may have caused even more of a delay.

As it is, he has his suspicions about where they may have ended up, but their pockets are still mostly full of their previous bounty, with no genuine plans of heading back out for the foreseeable future regardless of whether they are within a warzone once again or safely away from the bloodshed.

Yusuf believes them on the island of Malta. He tries to communicate this, but fails miserably. Nicolò, however, doesn't seem particularly concerned with his surroundings, most likely overjoyed to find himself on solid ground once more.

In fact, he silently leads the way inland, Yusuf running to catch up after pulling their boat ashore safely away from the possibility of its being dragged out to sea by chance. He could yell after him to wait, but what would be the point.

**Author's Note:**

> Oh, boy. Here we go again! :D I hope you like this. Please let me know! Kudos and comments always greatly appreciated, dear hearts.
> 
> Tumblr: [rhubarbdreams](https://rhubarbdreams.tumblr.com/)


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